You Vs. Cat iPad Game is an Interspecies First

Cats have been pretty keen on the iPad since its initial release. Well, if not exactly “keen on” then at least “perplexed by.” That being the case, why not capitalize on cat owners’ tendency to watch (and record) their cats doing funny things by releasing iPad apps just for cats? Friskies has already been down that road with games like Jitter Bug and Cat Fishing, but at SXSW the cat food company introduced a new kind of cat-centric iPad game: You vs. Cat. I think the title is pretty self-explanatory.

The previous games Friskies has released are all based on a pretty simple concept. Things appear on screen (whether they be fish, or bugs) and your cat swipes at them making them disappear in one fashion or another. That’s pretty much it. Cats, having no need for arbitrary things like points or gamerscore just claw at the tablet. There’s no real competitive aspect, or self-competitve aspect even, because the cats just don’t care, or at least act pretty nonchalant about it. I mean there’s still a leaderboard, but really, who’s looking? You vs. Cat aims to put and end to that, however, by involving you; a petty, competitive human.

The game plays similarly to air-hockey. The human flicks a little puck towards the cat’s side of the screen and the cat blocks shots by pouncing on it. Other than that, details on the mechanics of the game are spare at best, but there is a global Cats vs. Human’s leaderboard that will directly display which species is currently winning the war. Given that cats usually lie around sleeping all day, I think it’s fair to say they are already winning something.

No word on a release date yet, but you’ll probably be able to tell its out when the gameplay videos start clogging up the YouTubes and you feel a random, sinking feeling as the human race begins losing a global, quantified competition with house-cats.